Everything you need to know about How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

The How To Train Your Dragon series is surely one of the most awe-inspiring animated franchises ever. We've already been treated to two big-screen dragon training lessons in 2010 and 2014, and a third movie is incoming in February 2019.

What is the story of How To Train Your Dragon so far?

The build up to How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World has been quite the thrilling adventure, with our intrepid Viking hero Hiccup (voiced by Knocked Up's Jay Baruchel) successfully merging the conflicting worlds of man and dragon.

Beginning with his uneasy relationship with Night Fury dragon Toothless in the first movie, the two swiftly became best pals and a formidable fighting force in the second.
For the third instalment, we re-join Hiccup as he is appointed the new chief of his Viking village of Berk, following the death of his father, Stoick (Gerard Butler), in How to Train your Dragon 2.

Having fulfilled his dream of creating a peaceful dragon utopia, Hiccup's idyllic society is threatened by outside forces, leaving him and his faithful dragon to leave their home in search of the mythical hidden world of fire-breathers.

Who is the new dragon in the latest How to Train Your Dragon movie?

In the new movie, Toothless gets his first girlfriend in the form of a Light Fury dragon. And those who've seen the trailers will be aware the former's flirting tactics are rather heavy-handed and utterly hilarious.

The trailers so far have suggested that this Light Fury guides Hiccup to the hidden dragon world, one his father believed he was always destined to find. Whether this newfound dragon love will cause a divide between our heroes or not remains to be seen, but it will be worth it just to see Toothless' unique mating dance on the big screen.

What is the Hidden World?

Not too much is known about the titular Hidden World, but what we can ascertain is that it is a world completely inhabited by dragons. Full of bright, phosphorescent colours, it's clearly a haven for dragon-kind, the creatures driven to live in exile after being hunted to near-extinction by the Vikings.

No doubt there will be a race against time to find this world, with Hiccup longing to protect it while others seek to burn it down. The glimpses of a spectacular battle in the trailer indicate this is the case, as Hiccup confronts the war-mongering Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham).

Who is in the cast for How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World?

The main cast will all be returning, ensuring fan-pleasing continuity with the earlier movies. This of course includes Jay Baruchel as Hiccup, the new leader of Berk, as well as Cate Blanchett (who first emerged in How to Train Your Dragon 2) and Gerard Butler as his ma and pa. (The latter presumably appears in flashback sequences.)

Backing up our lead in his war against the mysterious dragon-slayers are the usual crew, including Kristen Wiig as Ruffnut, T.J. Miller as Tuffnut, Jonah Hill as Snotlout, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fishlegs, and America Ferrera as Astrid.
Naturally, it wouldn't be a sequel without some new additions and topping the list is the new villain, Grimmel, set to be menacingly voiced by Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham.

Why has Hiccup got a beard in the trailer?

The final thing you need to know about How To Train Your Dragon 3 is Hiccup's beard. Glimpsed briefly in the marketing so far, it blows majestically in the wind, acting as a full stop between Hiccup's adolescence and his emergence as a man.
It really is quite impressive.

But given he doesn't have a beard in the rest of the trailer, are we to assume he shaves it off? Or is this scene from some distant point in the future when Hiccup is older, the movie positioned as an extended flashback?